It's no secret that the blockchain industry is filled with loud statements, with the incarnation, usually not everything goes smoothly. However, proposals that seemed ridiculous some time ago, now work quite effectively. If two years ago someone told you that the existing blockchain could become so powerful as to protect start-ups from venture financing, you would have laughed at this person in person. However, today the creators and developers of the Etherium are laughing.
At the Consensus conference that took place last month, a big stir was sparked by EOS, a new platform for smart contracts to create decentralized applications, which claims to solve the most complex problems of the blockchain. Block.one, the developer of EOS, held many information sessions, sponsored post-conference receptions, distributed free t-shirts and even advertised on the big screen in Times Square.
According to the company-developer, the platform eliminates transaction fees and can process millions of transactions per second. To date - just a concept, only white paper, so far there is not even a code that could be studied.
What should investors do, started collecting funds through a four-stage ICO for the sale of 1 billion EOS coins? You can get different answers to this question, depending on who will be offered it.
- Factor changing the rules of the game?
Perhaps one of the most ambitious, noteworthy, is the composition of the EOS project participants. For example, one of the familiar faces - Dan Larimer, who became the technical director of the project. A controversial figure in the blockchain community, Larimer has won users for his fearless and unorthodox approach to developing new projects, but many do not approve of his methods of work and how he copes with difficulties and leaves his projects.
Larimer, who is credited with creating a delegated proof and management of decentralized autonomous organizations (then adopted and modified by the Etherium) is a crypto currency veteran who created the decentralized BitShares exchange in 2014.
At the time, as many considered BitShares to represent market assets as a necessary hedge against the volatility of the crypto currency, others saw the project as too confusing and deceptive. Many were also worried about the quick exit of Larimer from BitShares, who left the project without a clear development plan.
The exit of Larimer from BitShares occurred simultaneously with the launch of another project in 2016 - Steemit. Social network by the type of Reddit allows you to receive income, which is formed on the basis of the popularity of their records. The project received approval and criticism from many who argued that the platform is unstable and based on a contrived concept of deficits.
However, Larimer and his colleague - block.one president Brendan Blumer argue that even though these projects had their own complexities, they served as the basis for EOS. Larimer claims that each of his projects solved a key problem that hampered the large-scale commercial use of the blockchain. BitShares introduced the concept of horizontal scalability, which allows you to increase the processing speed of transactions to 100,000 per second. Steem sought to solve the problem of transaction costs by providing ways in which users could interact with the application without any fees.
According to Blumer, who has experience in the field of video games and real estate, horizontal scalability is the "factor that changes the rules of the game", on which the work of EOS is based.
That's what EOS did, creating an asynchronous platform proof-of-stake from scratch.
- Will this work?
Larimer's new project, like his previous y, was met by negative members of the community. Some say, "I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes," while others directly blame it for creating a pill from all the diseases. The main prerequisite for discontent is that important technical questions remain unanswered. The goal of EOS is to create the equivalent of a web server in the early 1990s, which will use some cryptographic principles taken from Bitcoin and Etherium.
EOS will include delegated protocol proof-of-stake (DPoS), which can be compared by the principle of its work with the republic, where each member of the community delegates responsibility for confirming transactions to selected "witnesses". Supporters of the concept argue that DPoS has the potential to reduce transaction processing time, including when verifying the participation of all nodes. This, in turn, provides a workaround for some correction problems found in evidence-based protocols.
However, many fear that the project may be fraudulent.
According to the blockchain consultant Tone Vays , as in previous Larimer projects, the crypto-currencies were controlled mainly by a small inner circle, they try to deceive the platform.
The white paper in the project explains that the latency problems will be mitigated by dividing each block into "loops", divided into different threads, and then to different transactions containing messages that must be delivered.
Despite the fact that promises of infinite scalability and free transactions may very well be realistic, it is not yet possible to verify them.
Despite the lack of specificity, the project was already named "next Etherium" and a general solution to scalability problems, but Vaughan noted that the project contains hints of hysteria and irrationality that only fuel interest in it.
According to Vaughan, Larimer is also not aware of these issues, since there is no working prototype yet. However, Vaughan gives Larimer at least some chance, while other users do not.
Chris DeRose, an industry expert and software developer, that Larimer's statements and suggestions in the past have been "completely detached from reality" and his current project should not be taken seriously.
At Reddit, the user under the nickname Geraldo even called the project a "centralized disaster" (using a stronger non-print word) and said that Larimer's projects will always be "completely controlled disasters".
- Leaving the Past in the Past
Larimer argues that the community is overly concerned about his past endeavors. First, he claims that his intentions regarding BitShares and Steem were originally designed to develop projects to the point where they can be self-sufficient and leave them.
Larimer rejects accusations that he left his previous projects slowly die, stressing that both Steem and Bitshares continue to arouse great interest among the community members. In recent months there has been a surge in traffic on both sites, however, as LERIMER admitted, for this in part in the response of the marketing campaign EOS.
In addition, as noted by Larimer, block.one provides a higher level of professionalism and accountability than in its other companies, especially thanks to the presence in the project of industry veterans such as Brock Pierce and Jan Grigg.
Larimer says:
Larimer also noted that some of his colleagues on BitShares and Steem followed him to EOS and now help write and verify the project code.
It seems that some decided to do so. For example, the Bitfinex Exchange announced on June 25 that it will start trading EOS coins in pairs EOS / USD, EOS / BTC and EOS / ETH starting July 1. The statement also notes that margin trading for EOS pairs will be activated in the coming days, as soon as adequate liquidity is developed in the order book.